What if
by SaffronAngel
Summary: After 'Entropy', this is my take on what could have happened. Complete!!


After all the events of "Entropy", Spike left Sunnydale trying to give everybody time to cool off and think about everything that's going on. He also wanted to give Buffy a chance to admit to others that she felt for him. Buffy didn't even follow him. She was that mad at him. She was more than mad.  
  
Not only that, Xander disappeared. No one knew where the hell he was. Anya felt lost because she really wanted to make it up to him. She wanted him to understand that her tryst with Spike didn't mean anything. They had just been two people who were hurting and turned to each other after too much to drink.  
  
Dawn got up for school two days after the incident in the Magic Box and got ready only to find a catatonic Buffy sitting on the couch.. She talked to Buffy briefly, enough to realize that Buffy had shut down again. Just like Willow had described her when Glory had taken Dawn for the ritual. Dawn was scared and angry. Buffy didn't even react when Dawn set fires around the house. Dawn had to put them out herself. Except the last one. She had set fire to Buffy's diary on Buffy's bed and let it burn. Oz and Xander had to carry Buffy out of the house and sat on the grass while the house burned to the ground.  
  
Everything was gone. Anya had locked herself away in a hotel room. The Magic Box had been closed for several days. Dawn slipped out of Willow's house one night and broke into the Magic Box, stealing all the money she could find. It was enough to get her to L.A. To her father.  
  
What Dawn didn't realize is that her father was gone. She got to his house with very little cash in her pocket. Only to find that there was a For Sale sign in the window of the house. Dad had moved. She sat down on the steps worried that she wasn't going to be able to find any help. 'I could go to Angel,' she thought. 'If I knew where to find him.'  
  
She started crying when she realized that she was all alone in this city. She wasn't even sure if Spike was anywhere in the city. If he was, where would she find him? She buried her face in her hands, crying in fear and desperation.  
  
"What's wrong, little one?" The strange voice made Dawn start. She looked up to see the host of Caritas in front of her. "Dawn Summers? The Slayer's sister?"  
  
"Can you help me? They call you Lorne, don't they?"  
  
"What can I do for you?"  
  
"I need to find Angel." She started crying and Lorne stepped over to her. She told him the whole story and he pulled her to her feet and wrapped an arm around her.  
  
"Come on. I'll take you to Angel." They walked off.  
  
  
When they got to the Hyperion, the whole place was dark and no one was there. "Well, I guess I'll just take you to the club with me. Angel should be in sometime tonight and I'll keep trying to get a hold of him."  
  
  
When they got to the club, Lorne showed Dawn to a seat. "Stay here. I can keep an eye on you no matter where I am. If anyone bothers you, just let me know." Lorne walked up to the stage to start things off and she walked over to the bar.  
  
"Give me a drink." The bartender didn't even ask for I.D. He just put a bottle of Jack Daniels on the bar and poured her a drink. "Leave the bottle." He shrugged and walked away. She took the bottle and walked back to her table. She started drinking, knowing that neither Spike nor Buffy would want her to be doing this.  
  
  
About half an hour later, Angel walked into the bar. Lorne saw him and headed for him.  
  
"I found something you might be interested in. Actually, it's a someone." He scanned the room looking for the table where Dawn sat. "I left her . . . Oh Shit!" Angel's eyes followed Lorne's finger to see Dawn sitting at a table with a nearly empty bottle of Jack in front of her. "I don't know where she got that. I didn't give it to her."  
  
Angel gave him a look that would have withered stone and stalked off to Dawn's table. He managed to get her out of there before she made a scene.  
  
  
Arriving back at the Hyperion, Angel bumped into Spike returning from a night's patrol. Angel is supporting Dawn and Spike looks a little worse for wear.  
  
"What the hell is she doing here?"  
  
"I don't know. But I know that this is no time to be arguing about this. Is this how you protect Dawn until the end of time?"  
  
"Don't blame me for this! Where's Buffy?"  
  
"Not with Dawn."  
  
"But it's her fault," slurred Dawn. "And his. And yours."  
  
"Why mine?" asked Angel.  
  
"If you had stayed she wouldn't have died. She wouldn't have been resurrected. And if she hadn't been resurrected, she would have or maybe could have told the others that she and Spike . . . "  
"That'll do, pet," Spike's warning growl went unnoticed by Dawn. The look in his eyes didn't escape Angel's notice though.  
  
"You touched Buffy?" Angel had turned to Spike in full game face. "She's mine! My mate!"  
  
"So touching!" mocked Dawn. "You love her so much that you walked away from her and weren't there all those times when she needed you most. Like when she came back and found out that we had no money for the repairs that the house needed. Like when Giles walked away and left her alone again. And why? All because no one ever told you that the curse is not a curse anymore. That's right! When the Romani spirit came over Willow when she recursed you three or four years ago, she changed the curse. She thought you had suffered enough and altered the curse so that one true moment of happiness would not banish your soul but rather anchor it! That's right! They found out just before graduation and didn't bother telling you or Buffy."  
  
"Oh God! Are you sure?"  
  
"Of course I'm sure. Giles wrote all about it in his Watcher's diary and then forgot it when he went back to England. When I broke into the Magic Box the other night, I found it down behind the counter and read to my heart's content." Then, she turned back to Spike. "And you. You just couldn't keep your mouth shut when it was appropriate, could you? You blurt out the fact that you and Buffy had been together just when Xander was most vulnerable to more hurt and then Buffy . . . " At this point, Dawn's voice broke and she started crying.  
  
"Come now, pet. No tears."  
  
"Sod off, you bloody git!" she yelled, not sounding one bit drunk at the moment. Angel assumed that her adrenaline flowing as hard as it was suppressed the effects of the alcohol. She was definitely going to feel this in the morning.  
  
Together, Spike and Angel both said, "Watch your language!"  
  
"Oh please!" Dawn spun on her heel, rather gracefully given the amount of alcohol in her system, and stormed off down the hallway. Suddenly, her stomach lurched and she fell to her knees, hands pressed to her head as if she were trying to keep it from falling apart. Spike was beside her in an instant gathering her into his arms. "Sick!" was all she needed to say.   
  
  
Spike sat beside her in the bathroom, holding her hair back from her face while she threw up. When she seemed finished, he wiped her face with a damp wash cloth and gave her a small drink of water, which promptly caused another round of vomiting. Dawn was very upset by the tender way he wiped her face and held her close as she shivered with the violence of her heaving.  
  
When she felt a little more like herself, Spike carried her down the hallway and put her to bed, standing guard over her while she slept.  
  
  
The next morning, when Dawn woke up, she cried. Her quiet sobs woke Spike up immediately. "What's wrong, luv?"  
  
"Buffy . . . ."  
  
"She doesn't need to know about this."  
  
"No! You don't understand! Do you remember the way she when Glory got me for the ritual?"  
  
"Yeah. She went catatonic."  
  
"She went that way after you told Xander. I tried everything to bring her out of it. The house . . . It's gone. I burned it down! I didn't mean to! I had started setting little fires around the house. Even right in front of her. Nothing. Not even a twitch. One of the fires got out of control and the house is gone! I snuck out of Willow's the other night. I had to get away from that sight. Her staring at nothing constantly was scary. I couldn't take it anymore. Xander would show up and try to make sure everything was all right with me once in a while. He wouldn't talk to Buffy at all. He didn't seem to care what he was doing to her. Anya has locked herself away in a hotel room and hasn't come out since that night." She stopped and took a deep breath. "I thought if I came up here, Dad would take care of me. But he was gone. There was a For Sale sign in the window." She started crying again. She couldn't help it. Her dad was gone. Buffy was locked away inside her own mind. Everyone else was more worried about Buffy than her. She was terrified of what was happening. No one seemed to even notice her in Sunnydale anymore.  
  
Spike wrapped his arms around her and rocked her gently. Eventually, she cried herself back to sleep. He lay her back down on the bed and covered her up before going to find Angel. Maybe he could snap her out of this catatonia. Spike needed to stay with Dawn. She was too vulnerable like this.  
  
  
"She what?" Angel was incredulous. Spike had just finished telling him about what had happened. He immediately turned away from Spike and started throwing clothes into a bag. "You stay here with Dawn. Take care of her. I'm going to Sunnydale. Maybe I can get through to her."  
  
"I hope so. For Dawn's sake. She needs her big sis."  
  
  
Angel was gone at sunset. Dawn slept most of the day and night. When Angel got to Sunnydale, he went straight to Willow's house. Buffy was sitting on the couch staring at nothing. He tried for several hours to talk to her. When he was about to give up hope, he put his hands in the pockets of his jacket. He touched something small and metal. He pulled it out and found it to be Buffy's Claddagh ring. He knelt beside her and took her left hand in his two larger ones. "Buffy, come back to us. To me. I need you." He slipped the ring on her finger and brushed the hair away from her cheek before he kissed her.   
  
He stood to leave but was stopped when Buffy started crying. He turned to see her looking at him with tears in her eyes. "Angel?" she whispered. He ran to her side. "Angel, what happened?"  
  
"It's ok. I'll explain everything later." He ran his fingers through her hair. "Right now let's get you back to training. Everyday, for at least three hours."  
  
She cried a little longer, reaching for him. She wasn't sure if she should hug him or yell at him. She wanted him just to take her in his arms and make it all better. Make everything go back to the way it was before he left. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. She snuggled tight to him. Everything would be ok. Angel would make it all seem all right. Everything was as it should be.  
  
  
In L.A., Dawn and Spike were getting a lot closer and by the time Dawn felt up to going home, they were almost as close as Angel and Buffy. Everyone was glad to see Dawn and not too upset about what Spike had done. Xander and Anya started to talk things out and got back together. Everyone settled back into their usual roles and lives. 


End file.
